IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v156y2023ics0148296322009754.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Doing good by sharing messages: An investigation of “You Share, We Donate” campaigns and how they can attain viral success

Author

Listed:
  • Wen, Xiaohan (Hannah)
  • Kim, Shinhye
  • Bowen, Melanie

Abstract

With the rise of social media, companies are engaging in a new type of cause-related marketing classified as “You Share, We Donate” (YSWD) campaigns. YSWD campaigns encourage consumers to share the company’s campaign message, with the promise that the company will donate to a designated cause, and the total donation amount is linked to the number of “shares” the message gets. Thus, the success of these campaigns depends on the campaign's virality. In order to understand what organizations need to do to set up successful YSWD campaigns, we investigate the linkage between donation cap (non-)specification—an important design element—and YSWD campaign success. The results of the analyses of 574 real-world YSWD campaigns and four experiments show that donation cap non-specification encourages consumers to share the campaign message more than when a donation cap is specified. However, this effect diminishes if a company is perceived as highly credible.

Suggested Citation

  • Wen, Xiaohan (Hannah) & Kim, Shinhye & Bowen, Melanie, 2023. "Doing good by sharing messages: An investigation of “You Share, We Donate” campaigns and how they can attain viral success," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:156:y:2023:i:c:s0148296322009754
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113510
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322009754
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113510?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wei, Shuqin & Ang, Tyson & Liou, Ru-Shiun, 2020. "Does the global vs. local scope matter? Contingencies of cause-related marketing in a developed market," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 201-212.
    2. Ali Faraji-Rad & Michel Tuan Pham, 2017. "Uncertainty Increases the Reliance on Affect in Decisions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(1), pages 1-21.
    3. Ilaria Baghi & Enrico Rubaltelli & Marcello Tedeschi, 2009. "A strategy to communicate corporate social responsibility: cause related marketing and its dark side," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), pages 15-26, January.
    4. Theodore J. Noseworthy & Fabrizio Di Muro & Kyle B. Murray, 2014. "The Role of Arousal in Congruity-Based Product Evaluation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(4), pages 1108-1126.
    5. De Bruyn, Arnaud & Lilien, Gary L., 2008. "A multi-stage model of word-of-mouth influence through viral marketing," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 151-163.
    6. Shelley B Beck, 2021. "Assessing SME Perceptions of Using Green Social Media Marketing," GATR Journals jmmr269, Global Academy of Training and Research (GATR) Enterprise.
    7. Chun-Tuan Chang & Xing-Yu (Marcos) Chu, 2020. "The give and take of cause-related marketing: purchasing cause-related products licenses consumer indulgence," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 203-221, March.
    8. Koch, Oliver Francis & Benlian, Alexander, 2015. "Promotional Tactics for Online Viral Marketing Campaigns: How Scarcity and Personalization Affect Seed Stage Referrals," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 37-52.
    9. Jeong, Hyun Ju & Paek, Hye-Jin & Lee, Mira, 2013. "Corporate social responsibility effects on social network sites," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1889-1895.
    10. Terry Beckman & Alison Colwell & Peggy Cunningham, 2009. "The Emergence of Corporate Social Responsibility in Chile: The Importance of Authenticity and Social Networks," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 86(2), pages 191-206, March.
    11. Fennell, Patrick B. & Coleman, Joshua T. & Kuo, Andrew, 2020. "The moderating role of donation quantifiers on price fairness judgments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 464-473.
    12. Borges-Tiago, Maria Teresa & Tiago, Flavio & Cosme, Carla, 2019. "Exploring users' motivations to participate in viral communication on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 574-582.
    13. Pescher, Christian & Reichhart, Philipp & Spann, Martin, 2014. "Consumer Decision-making Processes in Mobile Viral Marketing Campaigns," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 43-54.
    14. Ling Peng & Geng Cui & Ziru Bao & Shuman Liu, 2022. "Speaking the same language: the power of words in crowdfunding success and failure," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 33(2), pages 311-323, June.
    15. Gunawan, Dedy Darsono & Huarng, Kun-Huang, 2015. "Viral effects of social network and media on consumers’ purchase intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2237-2241.
    16. Ho, Jason Y.C. & Dempsey, Melanie, 2010. "Viral marketing: Motivations to forward online content," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(9-10), pages 1000-1006, September.
    17. Arslanagic-Kalajdzic, Maja & Kadic-Maglajlic, Selma & Dlacic, Jasmina & Zabkar, Vesna, 2022. "“We Go Together”: Understanding social cause-related purchase intentions of young adults," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 130-142.
    18. Müller, Sarah S. & Fries, Anne J. & Gedenk, Karen, 2014. "How much to give? — The effect of donation size on tactical and strategic success in cause-related marketing," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 178-191.
    19. Koch, Oliver Francis & Benlian, Alexander, 2015. "Promotional Tactics for Online Viral Marketing Campaigns: How Scarcity and Personalization Affect Seed Stage Referrals," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 76494, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    20. Phelps, Joseph E. & Lewis, Regina & Mobilio, Lynne & Perry, David & Raman, Niranjan, 2004. "Viral Marketing or Electronic Word-of-Mouth Advertising: Examining Consumer Responses and Motivations to Pass Along Email," Journal of Advertising Research, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(4), pages 333-348, December.
    21. Sinan Aral & Dylan Walker, 2011. "Creating Social Contagion Through Viral Product Design: A Randomized Trial of Peer Influence in Networks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(9), pages 1623-1639, February.
    22. Shehu, Edlira & Bijmolt, Tammo H.A. & Clement, Michel, 2016. "Effects of Likeability Dynamics on Consumers' Intention to Share Online Video Advertisements," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 27-43.
    23. Heimbach, Irina & Hinz, Oliver, 2016. "The impact of content sentiment and emotionality on content virality," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 695-701.
    24. Lafferty, Barbara A., 2007. "The relevance of fit in a cause-brand alliance when consumers evaluate corporate credibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 447-453, May.
    25. Kull, Alexander J. & Heath, Timothy B., 2016. "You decide, we donate: Strengthening consumer–brand relationships through digitally co-created social responsibility," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 78-92.
    26. Hautz, Julia & Füller, Johann & Hutter, Katja & Thürridl, Carina, 2014. "Let Users Generate Your Video Ads? The Impact of Video Source and Quality on Consumers' Perceptions and Intended Behaviors," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 1-15.
    27. Ling Zheng & Yunxia Zhu & Ruochen Jiang, 2019. "The Mediating Role of Moral Elevation in Cause-Related Marketing: A Moral Psychological Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(2), pages 439-454, May.
    28. Koch, Oliver Francis & Benlian, Alexander, 2015. "Promotional Tactics for Online Viral Marketing Campaigns: How Scarcity and Personalization Affect Seed Stage Referrals," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 75347, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    29. Mahmood, Ammara & Luffarelli, Jonathan & Mukesh, Mudra, 2019. "What's in a logo? The impact of complex visual cues in equity crowdfunding," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 41-62.
    30. Theodore J. Noseworthy & Fabrizio Di Muro & Kyle B. Murray, 2014. "The Role of Arousal in Congruity-Based Product Evaluation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(4), pages 1108-1126.
    31. Yih Hwai Lee & Cheng Qiu, 2009. "When Uncertainty Brings Pleasure: The Role of Prospect Imageability and Mental Imagery," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(4), pages 624-633, December.
    32. Newell, Stephen J. & Goldsmith, Ronald E., 2001. "The development of a scale to measure perceived corporate credibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 235-247, June.
    33. Dan Ariely & Anat Bracha & Stephan Meier, 2009. "Doing Good or Doing Well? Image Motivation and Monetary Incentives in Behaving Prosocially," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(1), pages 544-555, March.
    34. Hinz, Oliver & Skiera, Bernd & Barrot, Christian & Becker, Jan, 2011. "Seeding Strategies for Viral Marketing: An Empirical Comparison," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 56543, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    35. Rapert, Molly Inhofe & Thyroff, Anastasia & Grace, Sarah C., 2021. "The generous consumer: Interpersonal generosity and pro-social dispositions as antecedents to cause-related purchase intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 838-847.
    36. Yucel-Aybat, Ozge & Hsieh, Meng-Hua, 2021. "Consumer mindsets matter: Benefit framing and firm–cause fit in the persuasiveness of cause-related marketing campaigns," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 418-427.
    37. Lee, Sun Young & Kim, Yeuseung & Kim, Young, 2021. "Engaging consumers with corporate social responsibility campaigns: The roles of interactivity, psychological empowerment, and identification," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 507-517.
    38. Williamson, Amanda J. & Short, Jeremy C. & Wolfe, Marcus T., 2021. "Standing out in crowdfunded microfinance: A topic modeling approach examining campaign distinctiveness and prosocial performance," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 16(C).
    39. Motoki, Kosuke & Suzuki, Shinsuke & Kawashima, Ryuta & Sugiura, Motoaki, 2020. "A Combination of Self-Reported Data and Social-Related Neural Measures Forecasts Viral Marketing Success on Social Media," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 99-117.
    40. Sung, Eunyoung (Christine), 2021. "The effects of augmented reality mobile app advertising: Viral marketing via shared social experience," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 75-87.
    41. Evan Weingarten & Jonah Berger, 2017. "Fired Up for the Future: How Time Shapes Sharing," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(2), pages 432-447.
    42. Zhao, Zhenzhen & Renard, Damien, 2018. "Viral Promotional Advergames: How Intrinsic Playfulness and the Extrinsic Value of Prizes Elicit Behavioral Responses," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 94-103.
    43. Ketelaar, Paul E. & Janssen, Loes & Vergeer, Maurice & van Reijmersdal, Eva A. & Crutzen, Rik & van ‘t Riet, Jonathan, 2016. "The success of viral ads: Social and attitudinal predictors of consumer pass-on behavior on social network sites," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(7), pages 2603-2613.
    44. Quesenberry, Keith A. & Coolsen, Michael K., 2019. "Drama Goes Viral: Effects of Story Development on Shares and Views of Online Advertising Videos," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-16.
    45. Neeraj Arora & Ty Henderson, 2007. "Embedded Premium Promotion: Why It Works and How to Make It More Effective," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(4), pages 514-531, 07-08.
    46. Samu, Sridhar & Wymer, Walter, 2009. "The effect of fit and dominance in cause marketing communications," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 432-440, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Prasant Kumar Pandey & Naval Bajpai & Abhijeet V. Tiwari, 2024. "Factors affecting attitude and purchase intention towards cause-related marketing: a systematic literature review using TCCM approach," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 21(2), pages 479-509, June.
    2. Xiaojun Fan & Nianqi Deng & Yi Qian & Xuebing Dong, 2022. "Factors Affecting the Effectiveness of Cause-Related Marketing: A Meta-Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 175(2), pages 339-360, January.
    3. Tejaswi Patil & Zillur Rahman, 2023. "Mapping the Cause-Related Marketing (CRM) field: document co-citation and bibliographic coupling approach," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 20(2), pages 491-520, June.
    4. Anran Zhang & Pamela Saleme & Bo Pang & James Durl & Zhengliang Xu, 2020. "A Systematic Review of Experimental Studies Investigating the Effect of Cause-Related Marketing on Consumer Purchase Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-23, November.
    5. Irina Heimbach & Oliver Hinz, 2018. "The Impact of Sharing Mechanism Design on Content Sharing in Online Social Networks," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 592-611, September.
    6. Chun-Tuan Chang & Xing-Yu (Marcos) Chu, 2020. "The give and take of cause-related marketing: purchasing cause-related products licenses consumer indulgence," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 203-221, March.
    7. Huang, Jinsong & Su, Song & Zhou, Liuning & Liu, Xi, 2013. "Attitude Toward the Viral Ad: Expanding Traditional Advertising Models to Interactive Advertising," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 36-46.
    8. Tran, Gina A. & Strutton, David, 2020. "Comparing email and SNS users: Investigating e-servicescape, customer reviews, trust, loyalty and E-WOM," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    9. Kyra L Wiggin & Martin Reimann & Shailendra P Jain & Darren W Dahl & Margaret C Campbell & Paul M Herr, 2019. "Curiosity Tempts Indulgence," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 45(6), pages 1194-1212.
    10. Motoki, Kosuke & Suzuki, Shinsuke & Kawashima, Ryuta & Sugiura, Motoaki, 2020. "A Combination of Self-Reported Data and Social-Related Neural Measures Forecasts Viral Marketing Success on Social Media," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 99-117.
    11. Arslanagic-Kalajdzic, Maja & Kadic-Maglajlic, Selma & Dlacic, Jasmina & Zabkar, Vesna, 2022. "“We Go Together”: Understanding social cause-related purchase intentions of young adults," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 130-142.
    12. Gavin L. Fox & Stephen J. Lind, 2020. "A framework for viral marketing replication and mutation," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 10(3), pages 206-222, December.
    13. Hu, Miao & Chen, Jie & Chen, Qimei & He, Wei, 2020. "It pays off to be authentic: An examination of direct versus indirect brand mentions on social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 19-28.
    14. Das, Gopal & Mukherjee, Amaradri & Smith, Ronn J., 2018. "The Perfect Fit: The Moderating Role of Selling Cues on Hedonic and Utilitarian Product Types," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 203-216.
    15. Lena Steinhoff & Denni Arli & Scott Weaven & Irina V. Kozlenkova, 2019. "Online relationship marketing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 369-393, May.
    16. Menno D. T. Jong & Mark Meer, 2017. "How Does It Fit? Exploring the Congruence Between Organizations and Their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Activities," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 71-83, June.
    17. Sarah Gelper & Ralf van der Lans & Gerrit van Bruggen, 2021. "Competition for Attention in Online Social Networks: Implications for Seeding Strategies," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(2), pages 1026-1047, February.
    18. Pescher, Christian & Reichhart, Philipp & Spann, Martin, 2014. "Consumer Decision-making Processes in Mobile Viral Marketing Campaigns," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 43-54.
    19. Schwenzow, Jasper & Hartmann, Jochen & Schikowsky, Amos & Heitmann, Mark, 2021. "Understanding videos at scale: How to extract insights for business research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 367-379.
    20. Anjali Singh & Ajay Kumar, 2021. "Designing the marketspace for millennials: fun, functionality or risk?," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(4), pages 311-327, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:156:y:2023:i:c:s0148296322009754. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.